Maria Regina tops St. John Villa again, 50-40

When it comes to Maria Regina, St. John Villa is hoping the third time's the charm.

The Bears, who dropped a 50-40 CHSAA decision to the Westchester school on Saturday, will now be forced to play it a third straight time next week for seeding purposes in the upcoming CHSAA Intersectional A playoffs.

Villa, which dropped to 6-6 in league play (15-9 overall), needed to win one of two games agains MR, but lost 36-35 on Feb. 11 before dropping Saturday's decision.

Villa, losers of 4 of their last 6, will meet Regina (6-6) either Wednesday or Thursday at a neutral site to first determine who the third and fourth-place finishers are in the Staten Island/Bronx-Westchester (SI/BW) division.

Moore Catholic is first in the SI/BW division and will compete in the AA Intersectional playoffs. Cardinal Spellman, who finished second in the SI/BW, will be the No. 1 seed for the Intersectional A playoffs while the winner of the next Villa-Regina contest will decide the second and third seeds.

"We're still alive (for a spot in the CHSAA A Intersectionals) and because of how well we played earlier in the year, we put ourselves in this position,'' said Villa coach Liz Blanchard. "Playing them three times in a row is tough, but we know their strength and weaknesses now.

"It's really not about stopping them. I'm satisfied by the way we played defensively the previous two games,'' added the coach. "We have to revamp our offense and do a better job taking care of the ball.''

On Saturday, the Bears were tied 20-20 at halftime and only trailed 31-27 entering the final eight minutes of the contest.

But they got into some foul trouble in the final stanza, allowing Regina to hit 7 of 8 freebies in the fourth. Villa, which was also outrebounded, was outscored 19-13 in the last quarter.

"We were trying to be more aggressive to make up for the four-point deficit,'' explained Blanchard. "But we put them on the line a lot and they converted.

"We just didn't play well. We seem slow and lethargic, which is strange because we had a good week of practice. Plus, we committed 14 turnovers in the game and they didn't even press us.

"Bottom line is, we just have to fight through this,'' said the coach, who received 11 points and five assists from Danielle Iacampo. "That's all we can do. The good news is, we still have time to turn this around.''

Victoria Gallinaro added five points and six rebounds for Villa while Lisa Mendez paced Regina with a game-high 18 points.